No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) and the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) asserted the need for American children to receive scientifically research-based instruction and interventions. A variety of quantitative studies have determined components of effective reading interventions (Edmonds et…

This research was a triangulated study of student attitudes towards instructors' rapport-building traits and their preferences amongst instructors' rapport-building practices in online learning environments. Participants were undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in courses within an educational technology program at a central Texas…

Members of racial and ethnic minority groups earn doctoral degrees at rates far below what is expected given their representation in the doctoral-age population. This research expands our understanding of the experiences of Black doctoral students who persist and their post-Ph.D. career aspirations. Using the semi-structured, in-depth interviewing…

Increasing the number of young people who attain postsecondary credentials has become one of the primary educational objectives of the 2010s. While low college success rates are typically linked to students' lack of academic preparation for college and their subsequent need for developmental or remedial instruction, research suggests that even…

The characteristics and needs of college students across the United States are ever-changing. As Millennial generation students, born between 1982 and 2003 (Howe & Strauss, 2000), attend college, unique characteristics are present. Commonalities within the Millennial generation have been identified; however, socioeconomic status can impact a…

This dissertation aims to explore how students think about atomic absorption and emission of light in the area of introductory quantum chemistry. In particular, the impact of classical ideas of electron position and energy on student understanding of spectra is studied. The analysis was undertaken to discover how student learning can be…

Fueled by present-day globalization and influx of migration, the unprecedented global demand for English language necessitates the provision of high-quality education for English language learners across the world. This picture places English language teaching at the top of the educational agenda in both English-speaking and non-English-speaking…

Previous studies indicated inadequate health literacy of American adults as one of the biggest challenges for consumer health information services provided in public libraries. Little attention, however, has been paid to public users' health literacy and health information behaviors. In order to bridge the research gap, the study aims to…

Academic advising administrators, academic advising professional organization leaders, and academic advising scholars have not had access to information about how academic advising is organized in their states. The purposes of this study were (a) to describe the organization of academic advising in Ohio's two-year public colleges; (b) to explore…

This qualitative, phenomenological study examined the perspectives and responses of twelve school administrators who have responded to cyberbullying with a disciplinary action. The majority of the data collected for this study was gathered through individual semi-structured interviews. Supporting documentation such as entries in a reflective…

This work develops a constructivist grounded theory describing the influence of family and those that serve a role similar to family on the academic decision making of undergraduate first generation in college (FGC) students majoring in engineering. FGC students, in this study, are students with neither parent having attained a bachelor's…

Numerous researchers have investigated distance education in postsecondary settings, but there is a paucity of research regarding the design and delivery of online professional development for K-12 educators. The goal of this mixed methods sequential exploratory study was to examine attitudes of middle grades educators toward an online…

Social challenges tear at the fabric of the African American family, revealing complexities that identify a de facto leader, the African American woman. She exists in a chasm of overt circumstances which heavily influences her successes. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that motivated seven female African American community college…

This dissertation thesis describes a research inquiry that took place at a large Midwestern University, in the Fall semester of 2009, is comprised of three case studies, and attempts to respond to the question: "How do prospective teachers perceive, think about, and respond to the instructionally relevant variation of their students".…

The detrimental consequences of mathematics anxiety have repeatedly been evidenced empirically, yet little is known of its influence on secondary school students in Asia. This study thus examined its origins and impact on 294 secondary students in Singapore through interviews and surveys. Results revealed an average anxiety level of 44% and a…